Although the factory floor is a nasty, dangerous place for the robots that work and race there, it's not all pits, lasers, and bad news. Sometimes, good things happen to the robots -- they get repaired, and they get upgraded.

There are 26 different upgrades available on the Option cards. Here's a complete list --

Ablative Coat

Abort Switch

Brakes

Circuit Breaker

Conditional Program

Crab Legs

Double-Barreled Laser

Dual Processor

Extra Memory

Fire Control

Flywheel

Fourth Gear

Gyroscopic Stabilizer

High-Power Laser

Mechanical Arm

Mini Howitzer

Power-Down Shield

Pressor Beam

Radio Control

Ramming Gear

Rear-Firing Laser

Recompile

Reverse Gear

Scrambler

Superior Archive

Tractor Beam

Of course, because each card is unique, only one robot can have a particular upgrade in effect at one time. If you get the Mini Howitzer, for example, that's good for you in two ways -- first, it's a terrific way to whomp the other robots, and second, it means no one else can shoot you with the Mini Howitzer!

Now let's look at a few Options in detail.

Fire Control: Whenever your robot hits another robot with its main laser, instead of doing damage you may choose one of the target robot's registers and lock it or choose one of that player's Options and destroy it. (The player can't discard an Option to avoid this effect.)

Gyroscopic Stabilizer: Before players reveal the cards in their first registers each turn, state whether this Option is active. When it is, your robot isn't rotated by gears or rotating conveyor belts for that entire turn.

High-Power Laser: Your robot's main laser can shoot through one wall or robot to get to a target robot. If you shoot through a robot, that robot also receives full damage. You may use this Option with Fire Control and/or Double-Barrel Laser.

Pressor Beam: Whenever you could fire your main laser at a robot, you may instead fire the Pressor Beam. This moves the target robot 1 space away from your robot.

Rear-Firing Laser: Your robot has a rear-firing laser in addition to its main laser. This laser follows all the same rules as the main laser.

Scrambler: Whenever you could fire your main laser at a robot, you may instead fire the Scrambler. This replaces the target robot's next programmed card with the top Program card from the deck. You can't use this Option on the fifth Register phase.

Finally, for those who played the earlier edition of the game, two of the cards are new (replacing the older, somewhat confusing Shield and Turret cards). These are:

Crab Legs: When programming your registers, you may put a Move 1 card in the same register as a Rotate Left or Rotate Right card. If you do, during that register your robot will move 1 space to the left or right, respectively, without rotating. Priority is that of the Move 1.

Dual Processor: When programming your registers, you may put both a Move card (Move 1, Move 2, Move 3, or Back Up) and a Rotate card (Rotate Left, Rotate Right, or U-Turn) in the same register. If you do, during that phase your robot will move 1 space less than the move card says to move and then execute the Rotate card. If the Rotate card is a U-Turn, move 2 spaces less than the Move card says if possible.